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Post by Floyd Looney on Aug 17, 2009 21:04:55 GMT -5
The Fourth by Floyd Geron Looney
It was dark. She reached out but there was something holding her in, she was surrounded. She was inside of something, the liquid had just drained, she was still wet.
Then a dim light came into where she was and she saw a sign. There was an arrow pointing at a metal handle and she twisted it as the illustration indicated. The top moved and then it slid aside and air came in to where she was.
She was weak but she managed to get onto her knees and slide her naked body over the side of the metal container. She landed on the tile floor and caught her breath. She looked around and saw several dark computer terminals and over there was some lockers.
She didn't feel cold and thought it was actually pretty comfortable even though she heard the hum of air conditioning. She did not remember where she learned what air conditioning or a terminal was but it didn't seem important.
She didn't know her own name and had no memory whatsoever. That was bothering her. She knew that she should know that at least.
Then a computer terminal on the other side of the room beeped a couple of times. If it had beeped before she hadn't noticed. Then , a bit annoyed, she stood up and walked to the computer, its screen was not dark and this one had a chair in front of it.
The words on the screen said "Hello Tara, please press any button to continue".
She touched a button and a voice came from the terminal:
"Hello Tara. You probably have a few questions. I will try to answer them. It is 2123, 30 years ago a global war destroyed much of the Earth, at least for human habitation. The lucky ones were already living in the colonies but most died in a flash of light. Some survived."
Tara sat down. Watching the screen intently as images of the past and war flashed across it, images of other worlds and starships also played across it.
"Tara you are on Earth, in an underground facility built nearly a hundred years ago. Radiation levels have dropped but the surviving humans are hardly civilized, some of them are mutants with deformities. Off-world pirates sometimes return and search for those who can be sold into slavery. Sometimes just for target practice. Otherwise Earth is off-limits to humans"
Tara did not understand how humans that colonized the stars could have fallen to those depths.
"Tara, before you came another woman. Sara. The Third. She was last known to be heading for the San Diego ruins. Find her and she can answer more of your questions. There is a disc in one of the lockers near the exit that can also give you answers. Guard it with your life. There are items and supplies that will help you on your journey and whatever life you are starting on. Good luck Tara and remember that you are the Fourth".
The screen went blank except for the small letters asking if she wanted to watch it again. She found that she had remembered it perfectly. She wanted to go out into the world and find this woman Sara. She wanted to find out what she was, am I human?
She walked to the lockers and opened them. There were clothes, there were boots, food, weapons and a disc in a case that she could slip over her shoulder. She found that the second weapon would slip right into its outer pocket.
Soon she had dressed and saw that it was some kind of uniform and that it fit perfectly. A lot of things did not make sense, especially the urge to leave and find this other woman. They did bad things to those untouched by the radiation, she knew, and she had no blemish.
The heavy iron door opened with a squeak after she had turned the wheel lock. Then she saw that she was in a tiny chamber with a ladder, she climbed it. At the top was another hatch with a wheel lock, this opened up outward, sand poured into the chamber. Heat assaulted her face as the air blew in.
Soon she was standing on the surface and looking in all directions. She saw nothing but desert and a few wispy clouds in the distance. She put her hand over her eyes, those could be mountains. She checked the compass on her wrist and began walking.
All she knew was that she the Fourth.
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Post by Attero Dominatus on Aug 18, 2009 0:13:06 GMT -5
This is very interesting. 'The fourth what?' produces enough curiosity for a page turner.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Aug 18, 2009 0:35:28 GMT -5
That is the whole point of the story really. =o)
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Post by Attero Dominatus on Aug 18, 2009 18:41:14 GMT -5
She would likely need weapons that have never-let-you-down reliability. I would suggest some kind of miniature revolver cannon (similar to a gatling but with one barrel) so that dud rounds are simply ejected from the weapon if they do not fire. Considering the volume of fire such a weapon would have, the ammunition should be needle-like, light and narrow projectiles with a lot of muzzle velocity so they can penetrate armor and have little recoil.
Her side arm could be a machine pistol, something in the same style as an MP7 or a Micro Uzi.
To add mystery, maybe she is very good at placing shots on target but does not remember where and when she trained.
The ammunition for both weapons should be common with military and civilian personnel alike during the time just before the apocalypse, so that she can salvage ammunition from the bodies of her enemies or find them in abandoned homes, police headquarters and military bases.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Aug 18, 2009 18:52:51 GMT -5
She knows a lot of things and doesn't know where she learned them. The world around her has been reduced to nearly the stone-age, everyone has some type of problem, some kind of deformity and she finds herself in perfect health. Nothing seems to make sense, even the vital need to get to the ruins of San Diego. The urge to find Sara and learn where she came from, to get a story and the need to defend the disc she carried.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Aug 19, 2009 17:01:19 GMT -5
So here is the plan, first she will meet a faily who will be nice to her, they will feed her and let her stay the night but warn her that where she is headed is far too dangerous. Then she will come across a wall of cars lying on their side, a "border" that survivors built and inside is their own community. They try to attack but she is whisked to safety by a rival faction. They show her their community, ask her to stay and relunctantly agree to walk her to the next border.
Thats just a build up toward whats coming later. Along the way she finds out things about what the world is like now and something about herself too.
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Post by Attero Dominatus on Aug 19, 2009 17:18:01 GMT -5
Sounds like a good plan to me.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Aug 19, 2009 17:33:02 GMT -5
Later there will be space pirates and slavers and stuff. =o)
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Post by Floyd Looney on Dec 21, 2009 19:55:15 GMT -5
Tara walked west for miles. There was nothing but sand and sun, the desert never seemed to end. She has knowledge and not memory, she was in perfect health in a world where that was next to impossible.
There had been some debris, the remains of a small town most likely. She found a small shard of mirror and studied her features, she was startled at first. From the image and certain other features she decided her chronological age was 14. This made no sense to her either.
There was a broken roadway uncovered by the wind, would be re-covered soon. There was a vehicle, rusted out. The plastics and rubbers had all disintegrated, leaving a shell. The windshields were mostly broken away as well. It was like something dug up by an archaelogist, something to puzzle historians for years to come.
Of course there weren't any historians, there were very few people left at all. The planet was as close to death as a planet could get, but there were green spaces here and there, as nature asserted itself. Like some type of cycle.
Her westward trek soon became northwest, toward some greener areas she saw from a distance. The land rose in front of her but the slope was not steep. She found that her body was not easy to tire.
As she walked she considered herself a puzzle, as far as she could tell, she was in perfect health. Perfect skin, perfect eyesight, her teeth were straight and none of them loose or painful.
At mid-day on the third day it was extremely hot and she had been walking all morning. She sat next to a large boulder, in the shadow and drank from the canteen. There was probably a swallow left. She knew that a normal girl getting as much walking in as her would be drinking a gallon a day. However she managed on a few drinks.
What am I? She asked as she nibbled on one of the granola bars from the pack. Whatever condition she had come out of that tank in, she decided it would not last. It would probably wear off, had been wearing off since she left the underground bunker. How would it not?
She also decided that granola bars were boring and she would run out soon enough. Better to make them last as long as possible. This area had some grass and trees, she could hear bugs buzzing, she hear occasional birds.
The next morning she was looking down into a basin, a valley and told herself that this was called Lake Tahoe. She corrected herself, had once been called Lake Tahoe. The valley was alive with trees and plants, she rested a hand on her sidearm. Could be a dangerous animal here, deformed people maybe, maybe something she could hunt.
While walking stealthily through the underbrush looking for something to eat she snapped a twig she hadn't seen. There was a fluttering racket as a startled bird tried to take off. She had her weapon out and fired in an instant, the bird fell to the ground.
She looked at the weapon in her hand. It was a regular gun that fired the normal hyper-needle rounds. She knew but did not understand how she could have whirled and fired so accurately. Her senses told her where the sound had come from, her brain calculated the exact location of the tree she had paid scant attention to. Her body and her senses knew how to do that, a reflex even, despite her lack of knowing it.
She tied the bird to her pack and let her curiosity lead her to something she had seen from miles away. She found herself on the edge of a farm; a farm?
Tara processed what she saw. A house with a chimney, a barn-like structure, another outbuilding she surmised was a smokehouse of some kind and what could only be an outhouse toilet. There were several acres cultivated, a few rows of green shoots she could see and some rows of medium-height corn stalks.
Yes, it was a farm.
A boy ran out of the house and kept running toward her until he noticed her. He stopped dead in his tracks and then began running back. His eyes were wide, he looked a bit scared.
"Pa!" he yelled "Somebody is out here!".
Soon an older man came out of the house putting some type of leathery hat on his head, the brim meant to keep out the sun. He was holding what she very well knew was an old-fashioned weapon. One called a shotgun. He was followed by a woman in a long gray dress made of sturdy material.
"Who are you?" The man demanded, not really aiming the firearm but holding it as though he were ready to.
"My name is Tara. I am traveling to the San Diego ruins"
The man and woman looked at each other and she noticed the barrel of the shotgun drop a few centimeters. "Where are you traveling from, young lady?" the man asked. He actually sounded quite concerned. "Who are you traveling with? Where is your family?".
Ah, that makes sense. He's obviously a family man and he sees me as a young girl. His paternal instincts were kicking in. The fear she detected in their eyes she finally concluded came from the clothes she wore, it was obviously a uniform. Maybe one similar to ones they have seen before.
"She's one of those soldiers" the boy said "She got the uniform and the guns too I bet".
The parents were paying no heed to the boys concern, they were whispering to each other. Tara didn't move a muscle except to clasp her hands together behind her back, showing she was no threat to them.
"How do you come by that uniform?"
"I found them. They were left for me, some kind of gift I think" she told them. She would not tell them about the underground bunker, the tank or her lack of memory.
The woman loosened up, her ease was obvious enough to annoy the boy child. "I have some cooking to finish, Pa." and with his slight nod she turned and walked back into their small wooden house.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Dec 23, 2009 22:55:41 GMT -5
They decided to invite her for dinner and to sleep in their home. She noticed the man had a nasty skin deformity on his left arm. It was not debilitating and seemed not to affect his movement. The woman and boy had their own minor deformities. The woman walked with a noticeable limp, later she figured out that her leg had been crooked from birth. The boy had lesions on his chest and back. His eyes were not normal, more like slits than regular eyes.
From what she had been told and shown by the computer in the bunker these people would be considered lucky. They even had the presence of mind to find this lake valley and build a homestead in the woods. Apparently many of those people out there were more like zombies, their minds not developed properly.
Dinner was a simple matter of stir-fried vegetables and a flat bread, a tortilla her mind told her. She still wasn't use to knowing things she had no business knowing. These people didn't know the word tortilla, they called it a flop. The sound it made when the flat bread was flipped on the flat cooking surface. A scavanged piece of metal over a fire.
They warned her that the lakewater was not potable without boiling but that if you dig a well, the ground filters it pretty well. She did not tell them that her canteen had a built-in micro-filter that made those concerns moot. She could pretty much get any water and it would be made potable.
They also told her about communities on the way to the San Diego ruins, they asked her not to go a few times. They said it was too dangerous but she had to do it, she had something important to do. Some kind of purpose.
Then they talked about the uniforms. It had once been used by The Fleet back when they had heroically saved many people on Earth. Later the uniform had been corrupted by its use by pirates and slavers. The Fleet was supposed to keep them off the Earth, which was officially a quarantined zone, but they rarely patrolled it.
In fact after the Great Evacuation the remaining humans were abandoned to their fate. They were considered contaminated and not worth saving, or not possible to save.
A feather-stuffed cloth bag served as a bed. It was the boys' bed but he would sleep with his parents and she would sleep on his bed. She slept well and still woke early, she got to see the sun come up over the rim of a valley and reflect onto the lake below. It was quite a view.
The family had packed her some food and her canteen was full again. While she was saying goodbye the boy rushed forward to give her a hug. "Goodbye Tara" he said "I hope you come back someday".
"Me too" She said, humoring him. In reality she had no idea if she would ever be back, or how long her "purpose" would take.
They waved one more time before she turned and began walking west once more. She didn't know what lie ahead, between her and the San Diego ruins, but that was part of the adventure wasn't it?
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Post by Floyd Looney on Mar 30, 2010 14:12:29 GMT -5
Now that I am not sick, I think I'll try and add a chapter here.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Jun 17, 2010 22:45:29 GMT -5
Tara contined to follow the road, sometimes far off to the side and sometimes right on its crumbling surface. There were more and more vehicles now, all destroyed by age or scavengers. She had slept in the rear compartment of one of them once after hearing a mountain lion howl.
She came to understand that her uniform had been regulating her temperature and injecting vitamins. It had been a few weeks now and she was pretty sure that whatever store it had of energy and vitamins was gone. She definitely felt hot and sweaty and needed more water now.
The disc in her belt pack weighed on her mind. What secrets did it hold? Why did I have to wait until I found the ruins before I could learn what is so obviously something about me.
She stopped. In front of her was a wall that stretched more than a mile on either side. After that it was too dark to make out. It was at least twenty feet tall and looked like it was made of scrap metal. Her hand hovered over her sidearm, she hadn't even thought it to do that. She felt tingling on the back of her neck and twirled around.
Several deformed people, she thought of them as zombies, were trying to sneak up on her. They weilded clubs and stones and were now running at her since being discovered.
She drew her weapon but heard a series of loud reports and dropped to the ground. Someone on the wall had opened fire with a repeating weapon that was punching holes through vehicles and zombies. leaving small craters in the crumbling highway surface.
A light spread out on the ground around her and someone yelled "Run girl!"
She stood up and ran and the door was shut as soon as she passed it. She could hear a few more shots from the wall above as she looked around at the ones who had built the wall.
None of them were "whole". They all disfigurements and deformaties but they still had their minds. They had built a massive wall to keep the mindless ones out.
"Who are you?" An authority figure bellowed as he walked toward her. The others were quiet and compliant towards him.
"I am Tara"
"What are you doing here? Where do you come from? Are you a spacer, a slaver?" he demanded to know.
"No. I am neither of those things"
"You have their uniform. Did you steal it?" he asked looking her up and down.
"I found it" she said "My purpose is to find another named Sara, do you know of her?"
Wide eyes all around. "You know of Sara?" one of them asked "The one who brought us promise and hope. She brought us our humanity that we had lost"
Tara was taken aback, her heart rate elevated. They knew Tara, she was real. This was the first confirmation since she had left the underground chamber.
"I am Dellum. I am the leader of my people, the League of Survivors" he touched her chin and looked at both sides of her face. "Are you truly untouched by the plague?"
"Yes, I am untouched" she said. The people around her were awed.
"The prophet has come" one of them said "The prophecy is true".
"I don't know anything about a prophecy" she told them "Please do not expect too much from me".
"The prophecy says that you will come and re-establish the world and the human race" the fanatic replied.
"This is what Sara told us, after a fashion" Dellum told her, then louder "Tonight we shall hold the Feast of Re-awakening!"
Cheers erupted.
Dellum ordered a young man, a boy really, named Gax to escort her to her "quarter". This turned out to be an aged shipping container. Gax lit a candle and showed her around the meager interior.
"I will bring you some pure water. You can use it to cleanse yourself" Gax told her. "You shall be the Center of Honor at the Feast. It will be late since it is already dark, but your arrival has been foretold for several years".
"How long did Sara stay here?"
"Almost two years" he said "She taught us the wisdom of civilization. We would all be scattered or dead if she hadn't gathered us here. She said that your coming will presage the Restoration".
A scarlet-colored discoloration over a lot of his body was the only outward deformation she could see on Gax. He seemed strong and aware. Then she remembered that he had been one of the men at the wall. A guard or soldier or something.
A moment after he left an aged, bent woman knocked and brought in a green gown. "Master Dellum has asked us to give you this for the Feast. Sara made it with her own hands while she was here"
"Will they speak of Sara at the Feast?"
"Of course. You will learn her story as far as we know it" Tara tried not to grimace when she discerned that this was actually a younger woman.
She had put it on before she noticed that there built in snaps for the packet holding the disc and for her sidearm. As far as Tara was concerned this was an invitation by her predecessor.
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Post by Attero Dominatus on Jun 17, 2010 23:08:13 GMT -5
That was very good! I hope you add more.
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Post by Attero Dominatus on Jun 17, 2010 23:08:48 GMT -5
Okay, reading what you added in the edit.
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Post by Floyd Looney on Jun 17, 2010 23:09:12 GMT -5
I was still adding to it when you posted.
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